Are probably suspect by definition. That doesn't mean we can substitute our dream for theirs. And it doesn't mean we can solve the problems of the Muslim world for them either.

There is a virtue for the policy of having respect for a people's soverignty and self determination. Their lives are not capable of being scripted by US interests and delivered to be played by them.

Keep in mind this is a divided culture that in the 8th century extended from the Atlantic to the Indus, and from the Nile to the Caspian sea. For 500 years after Mahomet this culture pressed on as far as Vienna and it took the defeat by Charles Martel and the religious disorganization of the orthodoxy of the Sunni defending itself against the Shi'ites, the splinter "heresies" to cause the decline of a culture that started in the 11th century and continues today.

Isn't it naif to think this administration can write out a script FOR them, have them follow it, and be led to the promised land of democracy, a market economy, human rights for men and women, and religious freedom for all (in which evangelicals will be welcomed to proselytize at will to save again these backward folk)?

Lao Tsu set the rules down. Know what you are fighting for, and make sure it benefits you to win. We were lied to about why we fought, there are only negative benefits to having won, and Chairman Mao demonstrated you cannot occupy unless you have a plan to win the hearts and minds of those you occupy.

We have done none of this. Our plan appears to be limited to "have an election." What then?

Publius